A New Year's Serve

[Guest]

Hand Hand Hand Bod Bod

It's a lie from the first word, of course, as most tennis instruction is.

It's fiction here with the altruistic goal in mind, reader, of making
you live better.

The first word "hand," is part of a "unit turn" in which the bod rotates
45 degrees.

That doesn't matter. Dennis Ralston said to lead with the hand, and
his advice will never hurt you.

So hand goes down. Then it goes up. (As bod turns all it still can,
a second lie.) Then hand drops as nothing else moves and this
is the truth.

Then bod including some smooth rotation of the hips takes the
somewhat open racket despite one's semiwestern grip right up
to lower inside quadrant of back of the ball.

There may be some lie in that too in that you feel you are making
a catch, an act which is apt to include subtle movement of the hand.
The lie here is in calling this particular move or kata all bod.

Then comes a whopper-- the idea that your racket scrapes the ball
in three different places.

Doesn't matter. Your effort to brush soft twice and hard once increases
dwell from .004 second to .006 .

[bottle]

Note: I'm not "Guest." I'm "Bottle." And I was talking about a Doug King
influenced forehand although Doug never claims proprietorship of anything.

[bottle]

Learning to Move

People, as Doug King explains, take much longer than animals to learn how to walk.

In considering the forehand that Doug explains and demonstrates, I note that much
of the effort Doug has put into making students like Robert Redford function more like
one's furred friends has to do with rhythm.

I find down and up backswing followed by second arm drop to be more rhythmic
than a simple lift and drop which may or may not prove faster.

[bottle]

When Should Upper Body Do its Lateral Stretch?

That's an old question regardless of the serving motion one uses.

It refers to the reverse "husking" one adds to the ongoing body bend,
i.e., a clenching of the two shoulderblades toward one another.

Mark Phillippoussis said he arches through the whole serve, but for
all we know he may have meant longitudinal and lateral arch both.

By going into kata mode without a racket we ought to be able to
answer the title question.

(https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html). Go to "Serve
Kata Training, Part 2 ."

What are the parts we see today?

Hips turn and hand separation.

Shoulders turn with toss.

Tossing arm hold with hitting arm fall and curlicues and shoulder lift
to grab the ball and forward hips turn lifting right heel up with upper
arm and body still winding back.

Volleyball spike and scarecrow arm finish. Would want to have laterally
arched before then.

In watching the video I see lateral arch occurring in the stage of "while
still winding the upper arm back."

[bottle]

Great Chunking Possibility

The extensive "chunking" that occurs in Doug King tennis instruction would be
useful even in strokes that carry design different from his.

Chunkng is simply a term pertaining to the question of what belongs with what.
We combine our chunks of experience or desired experience in different ways.
First we figure out the size each chunk ought to be, particularly if we seek best
possible rhythm along with movement that is dramatically animal-like.

Another unique aspect of the Doug King body of video work is the extent to
which Doug encourages a student to make her or his own design.

"I will be your guide," he says while leaving final decisions to the student.
This is hardly command style tennis instruction which also can work
especially with dolts.

In the following forehand video (https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html)
"Racquet and Live Ball Stroking," I am greatly influenced by body move to the
ball of Christine, King's assistant pro. The same move exists in the forehands
of King himself but is less easy to identify because his seamless stroke is so well
seasoned/armored. I know from my experiences in rowing that the more practiced
a stroke the more difficult to discern the different parts.

When I try to combine down and up backswing with arm fall and body move
to inner bottom quadrant of ball, I feel that the chunking thus achieved is
new.

More specifically, down and up is a chunk. Arm down and body then to the
ball is another chunk thus permitting one briefly to feel just a bit like Jose
Iglesias, the Detroit Tigers shortstop. But these are learning chunks. Eventually
there will be two chunks only-- backswing and foreswing, i.e., 1-2 rhythm.

[bottle]

Using Correct Definition of "Pronation" to Develop Last-Instant-before-Contact Kata
on both Forehand and Serve

On forehand, one can use golfy hip and bod motion to bring slow racket sideways and
open right up to lower quadrant of the ball.

Pronation (internal roll of forearm) can then square up strings to back of the ball.

ISR (internal shoulder rotation) volleyball spike combined with power cord snap can then
provide huge short tract acceleration on both the ball and spin on the ball.

On serve, pronation (again, internal roll of forearm) can change theoretical contact
of racket on ball from outside quadrant to back of ball (high five) before upper arm
twist takes over in a huge volleyball spike though characterized by going up.

[bottle]

A Tennis Lesson on Backhand Witnessed in Winston-Salem

The high-priced instructor, although he always played with a two hand backhand himself,
was working on the one hander of his student.

"Get lower," he said. "Get even lower than that."

All exchange of information for one hour concerned getting lower.

The next day, I came back to the same court. The student, Filipino, was there but
not the instructor. We did nothing but trade backhands.

When it was over, this student said he liked my one hander but thought I wasn't
getting around on it quite enough to hit sharply crosscourt.

That's why I'm excited now about the sharper angles I'm achieving after watching
new videos on one handers at Tennis Player by Doug King.

When I use the word "new," I mean not only new to me but at least at some point
new to Doug himself.

Confession: I only believe in sportsmen and coaches who are in a constant state
of change, the idea being "You're either getting better or getting worse."

In the various courses and lessons by Doug King he always keeps a space open
for late realization that comes presumably from teaching many students and also
by always being open to new exploration.

Among new realizations: 1) If one starts to lower bod while taking racket to the side
instead of back one can then complete the backswing with racket coming up as
foot glides out thus using two phases rather than one in getting low, 2) One can
pull front hip slightly backward as part of bod straightening to square up a racket
that was slightly open, 3) The subsequent rip caused by clenching the two
shoulderblades toward one another works best if it starts at the moment the
racket gets square.

Also, one will come upon the occasional cue one didn't notice in earlier video--
on backhand the signal to straighten with hip coming backward when knuckles
graze the inside of the ball.

Which combines easily with earlier suggestion to let the major muscle groups
naturally conquer the resisting smaller groups busy at work to keep the racket
tip back so that that tip will fling at last like one thumb stubbing against the other.

Finally, one sees a way to shorten the racket work behind one thanks to the new
space created by initially taking racket out to side. Result: more economy within
the stroke without significant loss of power.

Goal: To install the described moves then make the whole "absolutely seamless."
Click on "One Hand Backhand Racquet Kata" (https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html).

[bottle]

Note

If hips come back then shoulder goes forward and vice-versa. Turning hips
are what propel the racket through its drop and easy twirl. Click on "One
Hand Backhand Racket & Live Ball Training" (https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html).

[bottle]

Interested in this Stuff but Want to Back off a Little?

Click on One Hand Backhand Dance Kata (https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html).

[bottle]

Presentations and Financial Backing for the Development of one's
Ground Game

As a college undergraduate, I had two adventures along these lines.
The first was making initial contact with the late Mr. Hunter Marston,
who subsequently donated to our rowing effort the Hunter S. Marston
Boathouse.

Before that however he donated a first racing shell which with his
permission I named "The Hunter," a choice that was approved by
my crewmates even though The Hunter was a main character in my
first novel.

The second adventure was, that, through the intervention of the late
novelist John Hawkes I was named editor of THE EDITOR, a Brown-
Harvard joint literary magazine which had thrived for several years.

Under my leadership, as I recall, I never put out a first issue despite
my considerable effort to do fundraising once again.

So I understand how these things can go, that TennisOne went bankrupt
and now the videos of Doug King and others are at TennisPlayer, not
in a single spiffy presentation but rather as another motherlode of sometimes
overlapping material, i.e., an added resource.

Funny about repetition in tennis instruction. I don't mind it. Each rendition
yields new meaning.

[bottle]

Backhand

Some like what I do. Others are annoyed. The reason I write tennis
stroke perambulation doesn't have to do with either group but rather
with what my sister Dru told Hope when I moved in with Hope: "Make
sure the directions you give him are very clear."

Tennis instruction, it seems to me, is the place of clarity. And also of
false clarity. I can listen to a bunch of tennis speeches and seem to
agree with everything. Then I'll think things over and realize there's a
single point that either is obscure or maybe I just don't understand it.

Does the hip really come backward when one squares up to hit a one
hander? How could that be?

I have decided to ignore that idea altogether and go with the butterfly
kata in the video "Dance Kata" (https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html)
to help understand what arms should look like at end of a seamless stroke.

[bottle]

On Forehand and Serve: It's not Forearm Roll (Pronation) First

This is a very subtle very difficult technical and psychological point
but with application to three different places in one's game: 1) forehand,
2) serve, 3) hitting own service line with a volleyball spike to bounce
ball over net to opponent between points in a match.

(https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html).
Click under Forehand Training "Racquet and Live Ball Stroking."
Go then to 14.35 and follow the description. Forehand there is the
subject. And one can see whole arm turning softly before it turns hard.

Now go to 10.25 . Initial turning of hand to high five in serve is somewhat
ambiguous but I think one can see the logo on Christine's arm band turn
somewhat. And when Doug King demonstrates the same soft move the
whole arm turns.

To look for a good training aid for both strokes then, spike balls from baseline
to one's own service line with just a bit of slow full arm roll before the fast full
arm roll.

I said there was a psychological component to this question, didn't I? The whole
notion of katas or detailed components of a whole stroke much as in learning
some phrase that later will become part of a full sentence in a foreign language
can lead a wonk like me to become TOO DETAILED and look for extra distinctions
that shouldn't be there.

[bottle]

This Agonizing Reappraisal Has All to do with Actual Rhythm of Forehands
Not Even in a Good Hit with Another Player but in an Actual Match when one
is getting Pulled Around


Go to 20 in same video as in last post. How to make time for a natural fall in a
forehand backswing? Doug's backswing is relaxed and unstrained and yet his
racket head gets into position very fast. How does it do that? The arm is bent.
The upper arm twists the forearm quickly like the pin in a gate.

Also to note: The natural fall of the racket comes mostly from arm extension
at the elbow, not from fall of the elbow itself. Some bend remains for interactive
hand contact however, the speedy part of which includes some backward movement
of the twisting elbow.

[bottle]

A Musing Muse

A muse came to me in the middle of the night, not particularly sexy,
a ship without sails and said, "Keep up your McEnrueful for a day
when you won't miss a single one. It's a crude shot with early sep--
the ball flies flat and fast and low. But hit more backhand droppers
off same grip-- I implore you.

"And just because your McEnrueful is early sep with a smooth bowlback
to get you centered doesn't mean you should do the same thing on a
topspin forehand.

"In fact, I recommend you keep your left hand on your throat for longer
not shorter time than other players. Point your left elbow at the oncoming
ball for cripe's sake. Natural fall will be ready to happen much sooner and
from way back and without the static of a still turning body.

"The fall now will be untainted melding into the further fall of right shoulder
as rotating hips open your strings to bottom of the ball.

"Either that or cut the initial rotation in half and fencegatepin (verb) the bent
forearm the rest of the way back.

"Or just think of one of the low points as beginning of part two in one-two
syncopation. (http://www.bing.com/search?q=syncopa...R&pc=EUPP_DCTE).

"Yes change demarcations constantly, Bottle. Say this is where backswing
stops and foreswing commences, no this is, no this is, no this is. I see four
possibilities. It's just a game so have fun."

[bottle]

Subtleties in Forehand Contact Area

With semiwestern grip and slightly bent arm, balance ball
on horizontal strings.

Now-- project ball over the net by rolling whole arm so strings
are on back of ball (soft roll) before they shoot it over the net
(hard roll).

Now-- perform the soft roll with elbow held in place. On next
try let elbow roll backward a bit. Note the difference in where
the ball goes and keep this knowledge in mind for future
tennis.

During hard roll, elbow to come slightly back at all times.